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Spanish mapping expedition heads for Texas
On this day in 1777, Luis Antonio Andry and a crew of thirteen sailed on
the schooner Señor de la Yedra from New Orleans on a mapping
expedition. Andry, a French engineer in the pay of Spain, was chosen by
Louisiana governor Bernardo de Gálvez to map the Gulf of Mexico coast from
the Mississippi River to Matagorda Bay. Andry's survey ship reached
Matagorda Bay by early March 1778, its work essentially complete. Shortly
thereafter, it fell victim to the trickery of apostate Karankawas from the
Texas missions. Acording to the lone survivor of the crew, the expedition
sought aid from Karankawa brothers Joseph María and Mateo who, feigning
friendship, claimed to be soldiers from La Bahía. After first disposing of
two parties sent ashore to obtain provisions, the renegade brothers
brought their companions on board the ship, seized the crew's unguarded
weapons, and murdered the rest of the crew with a single exception, whom
they held as a slave. After removing the guns and other useful gear from
the ship, they burned the vessel and with it perhaps the most detailed
Spanish map of the Texas-Louisiana coast to that time.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- ANDRY, LUIS ANTONIO
- GALVEZ, BERNARDO DE
- SPANISH MAPPING OF TEXAS
- KARANKAWA INDIANS
- GULF OF MEXICO
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Moore leads sortie of Texas Navy (1841)
- Texas Workers' Compensation Act passed (1989)
- Award-winning Texas author commits suicide (1956)
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